Emotional Self-Regulation or Emotion Regulation (ER) is the process of managing and changing the emotional experience, its associated physiological states, and behavioural expressions (Eisenberg et al., 2014). ER may refer to a child’s ability to identify and manage their feelings and behaviours depending upon situational demands. Emotion dysregulation, i.e., ER deficit often leads to heightened intensity of negative emotional experiences (Turk et al., 2005). Separate literatures have investigated this phenomenon showing positive relationships between ER and sociability (J. Kim & Cicchetti, 2010) e.g., pro-social behaviour and social competence, with higher level of ER competency in teenagers and young adults linked to greater attachment security and social development in infancy and adolescence (Groh et al., 2014; Stern & Cassidy, 2018) while ER deficit has been associated with non-supportive parental approaches (Xu et al., 2020). We developed an experimental paradigm, in which participants could experience a safe induction of negative emotional state and report changes in emotional state resulting form a context of social support. We conducted an initial investigation of possible factors contributing to a new model of Social Emotion Regulation (SER) including social support valence, self-esteem, and sex. The basis of measurement was changes in emotional state resulting from a transfer of emotional state from sources of non-verbal social support to the participant. We found that participant sex and self-esteem were significant predictors of changes to emotional state. We observed that social support valency has a minimal effect on SER, however, SE and sex have been identified as significant contributing factors in the mechanisms ER. Females consistently demonstrate greater sensitivity to negative emotional stimuli and report greater changes in emotional states than males. Furthermore, high self-esteem and low self-esteem individuals appear to have different sensitivities to social support in general as demonstrated by directionally different responses to positive social support. These results indicate that several individual factors may contribute to the SER model. Overall, further work is required to develop the experimental paradigm but as an initial investigation, we can build upon these observations by inclusion of additional social variables with the aim of improving our understanding of ER mechanisms and the ongoing development of the SER model.
| Date of Award | 2 May 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Christopher Bale (Main Supervisor) & Glyn Hallam (Co-Supervisor) |
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